Yeeeehaw!!

Wind River Reservation, Arapahoe - west central Wyoming - The Wind River Indian Reservation spans 2.2 million acres and is home to 2,500 Eastern Shoshone and more than 5,000 Northern Arapaho Indians. The Northern Arapaho were not originally given a reservation by the US Government, and instead had to find space on what was originally the Shoshone reservation. This was a big sacrifice and problem considering the Shoshone used to be everyone's enemy! The Arapaho had to petition the government to allow them to be able to live on the reservation, and so, this small space - probably only half of which is usable, which was originally only designated for one tribe, is now home to two tribes.

I am spending my summer living on the hot, dusty reservation at the home of my friend, Stanford Addison, a Northern Arapaho Indian who has a particularly novel and gentle approach to taming horses, and has also found a way of helping at-risk youth through working with horses. Stan is a lesson in courage and tenacity - besides the fact that he is not too far from the ripe old age of 50, living on an exceptionally poor reservation rife with alcoholism, drug abuse, and unemployment, and besides the fact that he has already outlived two sons, a few siblings, and several close friends, he was also injured in an accident nearly 30 years ago that rendered him quadriplegic. Through all of this, he has become a medicine man and recognized elder of his tribe, he has developed his horse taming method, and he has also opened his home to several foster children, and travels around the country speaking about his experiences. You can visit his website for more info, or you can come down and take a clinic!! http://www.stanaddison.com/ Or you can come down to keep me company! Please!! For the love of god!! Visit me...

Ahem. Anyway. I spend my nights in a tipi next to the corral. It is one of the few places that stays relatively cool, and for some reason, is also a spot that most of the kids who run amok here don't generally think to look for me, begging for entertainment, piggy back rides, and if all else fails, start calling me names (especially creative ones, like 'Tonya Dumb-butt') and wrestling with me in order to rouse my attention. Yes, being a tall, female white person, I am novel entertainment. Akin to an amusement ride.

I spend my days being a surrogate housewife and ranch hand to about 10 people living in a small mobile home - cook up breakfast, sweep up the floor, throw a load of laundry in, go for a walk before everyone gets up at the early hour of noon, feed and water the horses, lay up the tack to dry out, hang up the laundry, clean up the kitchen, put up with endless bad jokes and teasing, check business email, pick up mail, delegate chores, saddle up the horses, ride, nap in the tipi, entertain children, help new riders, put chicken in the oven for a 11pm dinner, feed the dogs, take a shower, go to bed by midnight. Every few days we have a sweat lodge ceremony which breaks up the monotony, and my favorite new thing to throw into the mix - a visit to the "neighborhood" coffee house (it's 20 miles away in Lander) with velvet couches, jazzy music, dark moody walls, wireless access, and tied for First Place for awesomeness is the rich espresso and the cute barista guy. I'm not so far from civilization afterall.